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Destiny's Hand
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Book One of Destiny's Exodus
Naked with a body at his feet, Artim faces a living death punishment unless no memory works as a defense. Milden, the face of the establishment, is obsessed with Katelle the poet rebel and grows impatient for an excuse to remove Artim, her lover.
The story of an old soldier curses as much as it enlightens and a broken god leashed to Milden watches everything. A space village in a generation ship allows no escape. If Artim and Katelle spark a revolt there can be no retreat.
Book One of Destiny's Exodus
Naked with a body at his feet, Artim faces a living death punishment unless no memory works as a defense. Milden, the face of the establishment, is obsessed with Katelle the poet rebel and grows impatient for an excuse to remove Artim, her lover.
The story of an old soldier curses as much as it enlightens and a broken god leashed to Milden watches everything. A space village in a generation ship allows no escape. If Artim and Katelle spark a revolt there can be no retreat.
416 pages, ebook
First published November 28, 2014
5 people want to read
About the author
Jorden Leonard
2 books5 followersI write. I play. I love.
I was a kid in Fern Forest, Hawaii. Now I reside with my wife and son in Portland, Oregon.
On the volcanic island, I lived in a redwood house and played on a beach of my birth stone.
One day, I drowned in the Hilo Bay after being repeatedly thrown in by drunken relatives. I still remember the moment when I gave up and breathed in the tea colored water—hence Ranger of Path's cover. My lungs surrendered, but my heart never stopped. I forgave the foolish swimming lesson the moment a fear sobered relative resuscitated me.
I never played D&D until college, and now I host a Roll20 game within my novels' setting.
I played Eve Online, exclusively PVP, for close to a decade.
I’ve bought many transformer toys, pretending it’s only because I love my son. He’s moved on to nerf guns, but I keep the old toys in case he changes his mind.
I turned forty and started Jiu Jitsu along with my son, but I got my cauliflower ear from wrestling in high-school. I think I broke my hand in a white belt tournament, and I don’t want my wife to find out.
I once burned my face while fire dancing. I am a fire dragon.
I was a kid in Fern Forest, Hawaii. Now I reside with my wife and son in Portland, Oregon.
On the volcanic island, I lived in a redwood house and played on a beach of my birth stone.
One day, I drowned in the Hilo Bay after being repeatedly thrown in by drunken relatives. I still remember the moment when I gave up and breathed in the tea colored water—hence Ranger of Path's cover. My lungs surrendered, but my heart never stopped. I forgave the foolish swimming lesson the moment a fear sobered relative resuscitated me.
I never played D&D until college, and now I host a Roll20 game within my novels' setting.
I played Eve Online, exclusively PVP, for close to a decade.
I’ve bought many transformer toys, pretending it’s only because I love my son. He’s moved on to nerf guns, but I keep the old toys in case he changes his mind.
I turned forty and started Jiu Jitsu along with my son, but I got my cauliflower ear from wrestling in high-school. I think I broke my hand in a white belt tournament, and I don’t want my wife to find out.
I once burned my face while fire dancing. I am a fire dragon.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2015
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
(Spoilers within)
Okay, I'll just start off this review saying I was confused. The story starts off in one plot, after a murder, and it seems like the goal of the story would be to figure out what happened. Then we pop over to some other guy who is probably someone running the place or something, and he says a couple of things. Then we're spending a bunch of time with a guy and his girlfriend as they talk in extreme detail about how history is being rewritten and they want to stop that, so then it seems like the goal of the book is to fix history. Then there's some sort of AI that is smart but being kept stupid or something, and it seems like the book must have something to do about that.
But then we go into the past of the girlfriend character, where she seems to be contemplating suicide and another women walks up and explains, in great length, how awesome the girlfriend character is. During this time we learn that she was 15 and a bunch of guys are creeping on her.
All the while, made up technical terms and names and places and... 'things?' are being constantly mentioned. I was so lost. I had no idea what kind of storyline I was supposed to be following or even what half the things they were talking about were. The dialogue was stiff and constantly dropping more information, as well as jumping back and forth between time, people and places in order to drop more information. Because the dialogue was 90% exposition, I didn't really feel like I knew any characters, either, I was just being told things about them.
On top of that, the two main characters spend a huge portion of this discussing how they'll be able to talk about stuff. They're openly and blatantly talking about what they want to do, not just in this "love pod", but while they're walking somewhere. They're doing so without any fear of being caught, so if there are all these places they can talk openly like that, why not just discuss their super top secret plans in those places?
Which was another problem. 25% in and we mainly see... two people talking. Nothing is happening, just these two talking about potentially doing things at some point. In reality, the thing I was most intrigued by was why the one guy was so interested in having the other guy braid his hair. At first I thought there was a sexual interest, but then were both clearly and creepily shown having interest in women (and I say creepily because apparently there were minors involved, and the other is pretty much a stalker) or being obsessed with the girlfriend that apparently everyone is obsessed with.
So in all the constant chatter of AIs and history revision and secrecy, the thing I got most curious about was the guy braiding his hair. I think because it was the thing that was actually shown and not explained.
When I got to the second part of the story, I quickly realized I was once again reading about someone sitting around and talking. And then he was thinking to himself. And even when action started about 50% into the book, it felt like so much of it was talking. So much of the text involved, "And then he overclocked. And then he stopped. And then he overclocked again. And then his drone's AI was green. And then it was blue..." Taking out the constant status updates would greatly reduce the amount of unnecessary text and stop slowing down the book.
Another problem was that I would start in a scene fine, like with Katelle going somewhere in a dress. All right, I'd be on board, following her. But after some time she'd still be walking around, pondering over things that have happened in the past, talking about different people she knew, and I'd be really unclear what he goal was. I started off thinking she wanted to meet Milden and make a connection or something, and then the story would go off on other tangents, and I'd start wondering what the dance choreographer or bodyguard or her batchsister had to do with anything. The action stopped and it felt more like I was being given history lessons about each character than following her on a mission. By the time she got to Milden I was questioning if I was remembering correctly what she was trying to do, because the story had gone all over the place in between with no mentions of him.
Read the rest of the review here.
(Spoilers within)
Okay, I'll just start off this review saying I was confused. The story starts off in one plot, after a murder, and it seems like the goal of the story would be to figure out what happened. Then we pop over to some other guy who is probably someone running the place or something, and he says a couple of things. Then we're spending a bunch of time with a guy and his girlfriend as they talk in extreme detail about how history is being rewritten and they want to stop that, so then it seems like the goal of the book is to fix history. Then there's some sort of AI that is smart but being kept stupid or something, and it seems like the book must have something to do about that.
But then we go into the past of the girlfriend character, where she seems to be contemplating suicide and another women walks up and explains, in great length, how awesome the girlfriend character is. During this time we learn that she was 15 and a bunch of guys are creeping on her.
All the while, made up technical terms and names and places and... 'things?' are being constantly mentioned. I was so lost. I had no idea what kind of storyline I was supposed to be following or even what half the things they were talking about were. The dialogue was stiff and constantly dropping more information, as well as jumping back and forth between time, people and places in order to drop more information. Because the dialogue was 90% exposition, I didn't really feel like I knew any characters, either, I was just being told things about them.
On top of that, the two main characters spend a huge portion of this discussing how they'll be able to talk about stuff. They're openly and blatantly talking about what they want to do, not just in this "love pod", but while they're walking somewhere. They're doing so without any fear of being caught, so if there are all these places they can talk openly like that, why not just discuss their super top secret plans in those places?
Which was another problem. 25% in and we mainly see... two people talking. Nothing is happening, just these two talking about potentially doing things at some point. In reality, the thing I was most intrigued by was why the one guy was so interested in having the other guy braid his hair. At first I thought there was a sexual interest, but then were both clearly and creepily shown having interest in women (and I say creepily because apparently there were minors involved, and the other is pretty much a stalker) or being obsessed with the girlfriend that apparently everyone is obsessed with.
So in all the constant chatter of AIs and history revision and secrecy, the thing I got most curious about was the guy braiding his hair. I think because it was the thing that was actually shown and not explained.
When I got to the second part of the story, I quickly realized I was once again reading about someone sitting around and talking. And then he was thinking to himself. And even when action started about 50% into the book, it felt like so much of it was talking. So much of the text involved, "And then he overclocked. And then he stopped. And then he overclocked again. And then his drone's AI was green. And then it was blue..." Taking out the constant status updates would greatly reduce the amount of unnecessary text and stop slowing down the book.
Another problem was that I would start in a scene fine, like with Katelle going somewhere in a dress. All right, I'd be on board, following her. But after some time she'd still be walking around, pondering over things that have happened in the past, talking about different people she knew, and I'd be really unclear what he goal was. I started off thinking she wanted to meet Milden and make a connection or something, and then the story would go off on other tangents, and I'd start wondering what the dance choreographer or bodyguard or her batchsister had to do with anything. The action stopped and it felt more like I was being given history lessons about each character than following her on a mission. By the time she got to Milden I was questioning if I was remembering correctly what she was trying to do, because the story had gone all over the place in between with no mentions of him.
Read the rest of the review here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2015
Destiny's Hand is an accomplished and impressive debut from an exciting new talent. Leonard's SF vision is spellbinding: his cast of characters is fully three-dimensional and engaging, and his plot is immersive and compelling. The interplay between AI, establishment, and those seeking the truth of their world after a lifetime of lies is an absolute joy to read. The themes of the manipulation of history and the many ways in which populations can be controlled is both thought provoking and fascinating.
If you're looking for a new SF series that will bring you not only fast-paced entertainment and an incredible future vision, but also well considered concepts and serious issue for consideration as we race towards an uncertain future of our own, look no further.
If you're looking for a new SF series that will bring you not only fast-paced entertainment and an incredible future vision, but also well considered concepts and serious issue for consideration as we race towards an uncertain future of our own, look no further.
January 26, 2015
I love to read new author's work and I found 'Destiny's Hand' by Jordan Leonard very entertaining. This is Book 1 of a new series called 'Destiny's Exodus'.
Explore this Sci fi adventure in the year 2798, when each day is accounted for as Artim faces memory loss while waking up to a lifeless body lying next to him on the floor, a young man dressed in a dark blue uniform. With pain shooting through his body, he begins the long journey of twisted mayhem to fight corruption using a helmet from a dead soldier as a means to uncover a past long forgotten.
A fast paced sequence of events unfold as we delve into this Sci fi futuristic world, an enjoyable read.
I was given a copy for evaluation and an unbiased review.
Explore this Sci fi adventure in the year 2798, when each day is accounted for as Artim faces memory loss while waking up to a lifeless body lying next to him on the floor, a young man dressed in a dark blue uniform. With pain shooting through his body, he begins the long journey of twisted mayhem to fight corruption using a helmet from a dead soldier as a means to uncover a past long forgotten.
A fast paced sequence of events unfold as we delve into this Sci fi futuristic world, an enjoyable read.
I was given a copy for evaluation and an unbiased review.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews